15 Minutes

Reality shows are taking over regular TV with real actors. I'm guilty of contributing to the ratings of a few of them, but some of them bring to mind the time of yore, when freak shows were a thing. Where people who suffered from horrible genetic or accidental abnormalities were exploited for the cheap entertainment of the public. Or public executions... Who actually went to those? And took their children??? Anyway, one of the most famous reality stars on TV right now is Kim Kardashian and her family. Kim found fame by making a sex tape that went public, which begs the question: what happened to shame? How does an empire get built on an act that is intimate and (allegedly) private? Kim is on her 3rd husband now days, the illustrious, vainglorious, narcissistic, self proclaimed god, Kanye West. Kanye is a stupid person who actually wields some power. In the VMA's last year, Kanye droned on forever about how wonderful (and stoned) he is, with long moments of awkward silence where he soaked up the approval of the cheering audience. He ended it with an announcement that in 2020 he would be running for president of the United States. This would be funny if we weren't on the brink of the most horrifying presidential race in history, thanks to Donald Trump. We know Donald, not so much for his business acumen, but for his outrageous life, personality, and TV reality show which fostered his apparent God complex. When he threw his hat in the ring, I laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea. Now he is the GOP's presidential candidate. I'm not laughing anymore. It truly could happen. Our founding fathers couldn't have predicted that we would ever sink so low.

The other issue that has become commonplace in America is mass shootings. It's not that it hasn't always happened, but not like this. Maybe it seems worse because of the ease of technology to get the news out. When an incident happens, we know about it almost immediately. In some cases, we can even watch the carnage because someone was quick to film it with their cellphone. If you follow the trend of mass shootings in recent years, in America, the numbers are staggering. Just today, in Washington state, three people were killed and one injured in a shooting. I was going to try to find an estimate of shootings since Columbine but the information on the database is staggering: Gun Violence Archive.

So what is this post about? Our lack of respect for the values we were raised with. The disregard of respect for a life. The moral bankruptcy of some aspects of reality television. The loss of love for our country and who we vote for to lead and represent us. It's about what some people will do for their 15 minutes of fame.